The lessons science and pharmacology teach us about
achieving optimal health, vitality and maximal lifespan with a low net carb, high saturated fat, evolutionarily paleolithic-styled diet aligned with my ancestral heritage and how I lost 50 pounds of body fat. A sorta fairy story.

Did you guys see how a new trial showed that the studly, elite rugby players on the national Irish team displayed awesome guts (and abs) while they were in training? I love this topic because not only does it raise many questions but it may answer what we inherently know/suspect about the interweaved relationship between good health and lifestyles/diet/exercise AND GUT HEALTH.

Exercise is Step #6 of the 7 Steps for optimal gut health and super bionic fiber combo (Versions B and A). I used to train and do 1/2 marathons and triathlons, and got very tired of defending my beloved chronic cardio to overweight HIIT purists. No joke. Hard to defend what is obviously ancestral. Our ancestors moved. A lot. They foraged and fought -- they fed their young and fortified their dwellings. They moved consistently often for hours. Genetically some (like apoE4) need to move much more than others perhaps. True also for the Pima Indians who have ancestral-type genetics but live in a discordant, modern, carb-heavy, sedentary ecology. See here, here and here.

According to the study, “The results provide evidence for a beneficial impact of exercise on gut microbiota diversity but also indicate that the relationship is complex and is related to accompanying dietary extremes.”

Many factors raise diversity which the researchers failed to address:
(1) exposure to dirt/soil organisms on the rugby fields (dirt can make you happier)
(2) contact with diverse other players' skin, spit, sweat, whatever is like how dogs and their owners share microbiota
(3) being outdoors and contact with environmental microorganisms (lower disease and atopy)
(4) genetic variants (selective for warrior genes, elite athleticism, super guts, lower inflammation, etc)

Here's a synopsis from the researchers:

What is already known about this subject? ▸ An altered gut microbiota composition has been associated with a number of diseases and syndromes, including obesity. ▸ We and others have shown the primacy of diet in influencing the microbiota in obesity. ▸ Loss of gut microbiota diversity has been linked to an increasing number of conditions such as autism, GI diseases and obesity associated inflammatory characteristics. ▸ Akkermansia muciniphilla abundance has been shown to inversely correlate with obesity and associated metabolic disorders.

What are the new findings? ▸ This is the first report that exercise increases gut microbial diversity in humans. ▸ Protein consumption positively correlates with microbial diversity (correlation coefficients 0.24–0.43). ▸ The athletes in the low body mass index (BMI) group had significantly higher proportions of the genus Akkermansia levels compared with the high BMI group.

How might it impact on clinical practice in
the foreseeable future?

▸ Our findings indicate that exercise is another important factor in the relationship between the microbiota, host immunity and host metabolism, with diet playing an important role. Further, intervention-based studies to tease apart this relationship will be important and provide further insights into optimal therapies to influence the gut microbiota and its relationship with health and disease

A. muciniphila is very unique making up 3-5% of fecal microbiota in healthy folks. IT LOWERS BODY FAT. The mechanisms are unknown but if A. muciniphila are fed to rodents, they lose body fat. If they are fed their favorite foods (oligofructose) then A. muciniphila populations are restored and weight loss in rodent models ensues. It is also associated with elevated endocanabinnoid concentrations and maintains healthy blood glucoses (maybe this is why pot causes lower glucose... thus 'munchies'?).

It works for me. It's half of Version B of my super bionic fiber formula. Inulin and oligos are naturally found abundantly in onions, leeks (French stay skinny on leek soup), asparagus, sunchokes, etc. It's sweet tasting with little energy/calories for us but plentiful for the intestinal flora.

I believe it's body fat reducing characteristics are related to A. muciniphila and many of our co-evolved ancestral core microbiota which have co-adapted to eating the diverse spectrum of plant polysaccharides on Earth that we feed them (oligos, inulin, xylan, arabinoxylan, lignin, arabinogalactan, beta-glucan, hemicelluloses, pectin, glucomannan, etc). They have diversified above and beyond raw resistant starch. You don't need a lot. Oligofructose and inulin-like fructans are the second most abundant 'fiber' on the planet, found in over 36,000 plants in our global ecosystem in roots, tubers, legumes, leaves, grains, agave, cacti, and stems. Tiny amounts go a LOOOOONG way.

In humans, A. muciniphila is 'missing' in the gut fingerprint of obesity, T2 diabetes and IBD, to name just a few post-industrial conditions. When I look at a gut profile, what I see matches the studies; in obese/weight-challenged, A muciniphila is low. In lean, abundant.

"In the article that appeared on 13 May in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the research team concluded that the bacteria are less frequent in mice with induced obesity and with type 2 (adult-onset) diabetes. Furthermore, administering rather indigestible fibres such as oligofructose, known for its advantageous effect on intestinal biota, resulted in a recovery of the Akkermansia population in mice. The presence of the bacteria strengthens the intestinal barrier and is also inversely correlated with weight increase (fat storage), inflammation reactions in fatty tissues and insulin resistance.

To check that, the researchers administered Akkermansia bacteria to ordinary mice on various diets. With a normal diet, no effect was noticed but in mice that became overweight as a result of a high-fat diet, the Akkermansia bacteria caused a reduction in fat development and associated metabolic defects, without affecting food intake. After the administration of Akkermansia bacteria, there was an increase in endocannabinoid levels, a substance that ensures blood glucose remains at the correct level. In addition, the intestinal barrier function was strengthened. Only intact, living bacteria produced these results; the researchers noticed that bacteria that had been heated beforehand had no effect." Sciencedaily

Back to Healthy, Elite Rugby Players With Spectacular Guts

The athletes were in training. They exercised, built lean muscle mass (biomarker: CK), burned fat, and consumed way more fiber (conventional) 39 g/day v 20-something g/day by controls. They ate vastly higher volumes of food in general (exceeding 4400 kcal/day) because they ate more starches/carbs + vegetables/fruit + MEAT.

They ate way way way more protein including whey protein from powders (sulfur source) than controls (median 2.4 g/kg v. 1.1-1.6 g/day in controls) and protein intake was found to be directly related to healthier guts/diversity. I think dietary protein is awesome as long as we achieve enough fiber and exercise/oxygenation/lymph-circulation... Dietary protein is aligned to our carnivorous guts and ancestral history. Given however after mass microbial extinctions in our guts that are unparalleled in the history of mammals, we do not digest as well as our ancient predecessors. Suboptimal gut health is marked by poor gastric acid secretion (hence GERD/heartburn!), low elastase and other pancreatic enzyme secretion, loss of gall bladder function/stones, poor fecal pH, lack of gut microbial fermentation and small intestinal permeability/inflammation. We are missing our ancestral core bacteria, yeasts and wild spirochetes that keep us healthy and digestion smooth and unfettered.

Dietary protein consumption also correlated with muscle mass (CK). As you're probably aware muscle is a good biomarker for longevity (sarcopenia, less longevity -- please see Jamie Scott's AHS14 Presentation).

I like how this study by Clarke and his University College Cork colleagues put a framework to muscle, diet, exercise and gut health here. These guys were in intense conditioning for their sport... no junk or 'snacks' compared with controls. Diet was apparently clean and dialed for optimal glycolytics, POWER SPRINTS and chronic cardio. Only water polo players might give them a run for their money lol.

"The athletes are an exceptional group in terms of their dietary intake, fitness/endurance and now we know, in relation to their gut microbiota! This high diversity is particularly linked with exercise and protein consumption and suggests that eating specific proteins and/or exercise can provide a means of increasing microbial diversity in the gut.

This is the first report that exercise increases microbial diversity in humans. While we and others have previously shown that diet influences microbial diversity, we can now report that protein consumption, in particular, positively correlates with microbial diversity." Source

Monday, August 25, 2014

My kids and I had the pleasure to spend a day at the Leras Family Farm in Santa Rosa last Tuesday. We had a total blast! We played with the two baby calves with Zak (intern), fed slop to the Red Waddle pigs, amusingly watched 24 piglets forage and root on their acreage, studied Danielle the intern making cheese, picked basil, berries and grapes, drank their kombucha and chased and played with their beautiful soy-free, free range chickens in two coups.

Thanks for Dave, WAPF chapter leader in Berkeley for helping to set up!

Mike Leras with my d Hannah and I

FARMACY

What's so awesome about the ecology and environment of an organic farm like Michael Leras and his family's (gorgeous wife Jill (former model), 2 sons, doggy Brownie) is not only the inclusive recycling of all the nutrients from produce and leftovers but the completeness of the system: animals + plants. It's a true farmacopeia of happiness nutrients that every brain, gut and body needs.

Michael and his family go to Three Stone Hearth in Berkeley for families to pick up their fresh products like soy-free eggs, pork, grassfed beef, etc every week on Wed night and Saturdays.

Antidepressant Microbes In Soil: How Dirt Makes You Happy

"Soil Microbes and Human Health: Did you know that there’s a natural antidepressant in soil? It’s true. Mycobacterium vaccae is the substance under study and has, indeed, been found to mirror the effect on neurons that drugs like Prozac provide. The bacterium is found in soil and may stimulate serotonin production, which makes you relaxed and happier. Studies were conducted on cancer patients and they reported a better quality of life and less stress.Serotonin has been linked to such problems as depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder and bipolar problems. The bacterium appears to be a natural antidepressant in soil and has no adverse health effects. These antidepressant microbes in soil may be as easy to use as just playing in the dirt.Most avid gardeners will tell you that their landscape is their “happy place” and the actual physical act of gardening is a stress reducer and mood lifter. The fact that there is some science behind it adds additional credibility to these garden addicts’ claims. The presence of a soil bacteria antidepressant is not a surprise to many of us who have experienced the phenomenon ourselves. Backing it up with science is fascinating, but not shocking, to the happy gardener.Mycrobacterium antidepressant microbes in soil are also being investigated for improving cognitive function, Crohn’s disease and even rheumatoid arthritis." Read more HERE. Hat tip: Keith Bell.

Saturday, August 23, 2014

My #SoulSistah Hannah Crum will be attending the Farm to Fermentation Festival again this year. I'll be at her booth and helping out. Come out to Santa Rosa for some fermentation fun, lessons and activities. All are gut-friendly! And everything good for the gut is good for the mind, muscles and happiness.

The Farm to Fermentation Festival is revving up to be another fantastically lively event. There will be classes on making fermented foods and beverages at home, delicious samples from California's premier fermented food producers, and educational presentations from authors and entrepreneurs in the industry. This event continues to grow in attendance each year as fermented foods begin to appear on more and more grocery shelves. Truly, the greatest thing about the popularity of fermented foods is that they are incredibly beneficial to consume.

Experience the taste of fermented foods from around the world and learn how to make many of them at home in your own kitchen!

12:00 pm - 4:00 pm: VIP Libation Lounge Access (Ages 21+)

Our VIP garden will be open for you to sip on ciders, meads, beers, and wines from some of California's best craft producers!

2:30-4:00 Cheese and Beverage Pairing

Join Colette Hatch, also know as Madame de Fromage, to experience the complex and unique flavors of fermentation through her pairing of local cheeses with wine, cider and mead

2014 Schedule:

Center Stage

Located in the Auditorium, join us behind the curtain for these presentations:

11:30 Trish Carty: "Your Digestive Health"

Learn how to take control of your digestive health through home-made fermented foods and beverages. As owner of Keep the Beet, Certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, Certified Healing Foods Specialist, and Professional Chef for over 30 years, Trish works with many people to use fermented foods as a tool for improving digestive health. Trish will teach us how to make cortido - a Latin American cabbage ferment - and coconut water kefir at home.

12:30 Hannah Crum: "Making Healthy Sodas"

The "Kombucha Mamma" is the founder of KombuchaKamp.com - the most visited website in the world for Kombucha information, recipes and advice. Sodas are a fad and they are fading fast! So what's a 21st century bacteriosapien going to sip on? Fermented drinks, of course! Milk kefir, water kefir, kombucha and jun will all be covered in this demo + conversation about why our bodies thrill to the unique flavors and benefits of these tasty drinks that have been around as long as we have. Hannah has been fermenting and educating for over a decade. Stop by her booth to check out her cultures and take one home with you!

1:30 Alex Lewin: "Take Back Your Food and Your Health"

As author of Real Food Fermentation, Alex loves talking about fermentation and food in general. His great wish is that by sharing his enthusiasm for fermentation at home, he can serve others on their paths to food consciousness and wholeness. Learn why Alex set out to publish his book and what recipes he recommends to start your fermentation journey.

2:00 Home Makers Kraut-Off

A Farm to Fermentation Festival First!! Our panel of expert judges includes: John Ash, Heather Irwin, Franco Dunn, Todd Champagne and Mara King. These five will pick the best of the best and crown Kraut King or Kraut Queen of Sonoma County. Bring a jar of your homemade sauerkraut to the festival and enter yourself in this competition at the raffle table. Our only rules are: you must not be a professional food producer, and the item must be a fermented sauerkraut.

2:30 Austin Durant: "Making Miso at Home"

Austin is the founder of Fermenters Club, an online community of food enthusiasts who share a love for traditionally-preserved, natural probiotic foods. He hosts workshops in his home city of San Diego and encourages people to form their own local group to workshops, food swaps and classes. Austin will be offering a presentation on miso making and will include tips for creating it with beans other than soy. Join this workshop to check out this ancient fermentation process. You'll head home to create this delicacy on your own - but be patient(!) - it will take one year to ferment.

3:30 Jill Nussinow: "Ferment With the Seasons"

Our Veggie Queen and Alternative Registered Dietician has been teaching plant-based nutrition for over 20 years. The author of Nutrition CHAMPS: The Veggie Queen's Guide to Eating and Cooking for Optimum Health, Happiness, Energy and Vitality and The New Fast Food is an avid fermenter of local Sonoma County produce. If you haven't heard Jill speak, you don't know how fun veggies can be. Go ahead - ask her about the only batch of pickles that didn't turn out right. Learn what's best to ferment in the warm, bright, long days of summer and what is best to ferment in the cold, dark, long nights of winter. She will share stories, wisdom and brief recipes.

4:15 Raffle prize winners announced!

Will YOU be the winner of the 15 liter traditional Polish crock? Many prizes geared toward the home-fermenter will be given to the raffle prize winners! Must be present to win prize. Raffle tickets will be for sale on the day of the event, and VIP attendees will be given 5 raffle tickets upon entry.

Cypress Room WEST

Enter this cultured classroom from the patio near the food vendors:

11:30 Gregg Lindsley: "Using a Water Lock Crock to Make Kimchi"

Gregg is a ceramicists who specializes in fermentation wares. Have you ever wondered what that water mote is for on traditional crocks? How often do you need to fill it? Why is it bubbling at me? Join Gregg to learn about making a batch of kimchi and setting yourself up for success. This time-honored fermentation vessel is a must-have for any fermenter who is ready for batch after batch of deliciously cultured vegetables. Stop by Gregg's Earth and Fire Pottery booth to check out his handmade crocks!

12:30 Jeff Cox: "The Nature Of Health"

Long time food writer for the Press Democrat, home wine maker, gardener and author of From Vines to Wines and The Essential Book of Fermentation, Jeff has been studying microbes for many years. He understands that the health of any ecosystem is directly proportional to its biodiversity and will discuss the health benefits of increasing the biodiversity of your intestinal tract with fermented foods.

1:30 Chris Byrne: "Making Mead At Home"

We now know from scientific research that our human kind was imbibing on honey wines before the cultivation of grains or grapes. Mead IS the drink of our ancestors. Join Chris to rediscover this ancient "inspiration for poetry and pottery" using simple equipment and methods. Learn about wild fermentation of mead versus inoculation, and decide which direction you are going to take when you head home to make your first batch of mead.

2:30 Karen Diggs: "Making Sauerkraut: Sexy to Exotic"

Learn to "sexy-up" your sauerkraut with stimulating spices, healing herbs and and other unique ingredients to improve your health and please your palate. Karen is a Certified Nutritionist, Therapeutic Chef and culinary instructor at the Bauman College. In addition, Karen has recently co-founded Kraut Source, which is a stainless steel lid system to fit on any wide mouth jar. Join Karen to talk about fermenting in small and large batches, and varying your recipes!

3:30 Oron Benary: "Scale Up: Turn Your Brew Into A Business"

Oron is the CPA, Owner and Meadmaker of The SF Mead Company and Brothers Drake Meadery. He brings us years of experience creating sensational meads and will provide tips to those who have friends exclaiming "you should be selling this stuff!" If you want to turn your experience and skill as a home brewer into a viable business, join Oron to learn what to focus on while scaling up your production.

4:30 Lisa Murphy: "Traditional Fermentation of Hot Sauce"

We have tasted fermented beer, wine and sauerkraut, but what about fermented hot sauces? Join Lisa, of SOSU Hot Sauces, to learn why fermentation contributes to the depth and flavors of chili peppers through this live tasting experience of hot sauces. Lisa is currently working on a barrel-aged hot sauce which will be ready for market this fall! Bring your spicy-lovin' soul over to Lisa to learn more about the traditional practice of fermenting peppers for sauces.

Cypress Room EAST

Enter this cultured classroom from the lobby near the ticket and welcome booth:

11:30 Mary Sheila Gonnella: "The Edible Effect of Sour"

What does the sour flavor do for our bodies? Sour is made of the elements Fire and Water, with the ability to warm our bodies. Learn how to use sour foods and beverages medicinally for digestive health. Mary Sheila will teach us which organs these sour treats stimulate and how to use fermented foods and drinks to benefit your digestive system. "How much is too much?" is a question that Mary Shiela can answer, along with the best fermented foods for your own digestive system.

12:30 Karen Solomon: "Asian Pickles: Starting a Nuka Ferment"

Karen is a long-time food writer and published author of Jam It, Cure It, Pickle It and Asian Pickles. Karen writes for many food blogs and is always tinkering in her kitchen with new preservation and cooking experiments. Join Karen to learn the steps towards creating your own traditional Nukazuke pickles at home.

1:30 Todd Champagne: "Crunchy Sour Pickles like a (c)Rockstar"

If you haven't jumped elbow deep into your own batch of briney goodness, let Todd show you the way! Todd is the owner of Happy Girl Kitchen and creator of delicious seasonal ferments and preserves. When he isn't making pickles, he enjoys teaching others his tried-and-true methods for making a very first batch with success.

2:30 Tiffani Beckman-McNeil: "Making Ginger Bug Sodas at Home"

Tiffani is the owner of Backyard CSA - your one stop Farm to Table online shop for delicious, local, and organic food options. Tiffani is also a seasoned home fermenter and has taught Ginger Bug sodas at our event since 2012! You don't want to miss out on her easy approach to starting a Ginger Bug with nothing more than organic ginger, organic sugar and water! You will be on your way to creating scrumptious concoctions for your friends and family after checking out her presentation.

3:30 Ellen White: "Making Your First Batch of Kimchi"

Fermentation requires no heat or electricity; just salt and vegetables! Listen to Ellen, owner of Ellen's Kimchi, about the benefits of preserving your harvest through the kimchi process. Learn why the ingredients in this ferment (garlic, ginger and green onion) benefit our bodies even more throughout the fermentation. Ellen's Kimchi is a living product that comes with a birthdate on it - learn why this powerful ferment doesn't have an expiration date.

4:30 Mara King: "Making Traditional Umeboshi"

Umeboshi is a deliciously sour and salty preserved ume plum which has been a popular Tsukemono (pickle) in Japan for hundreds of years. Join Mara, the co-founder of Ozuke Foods, to learn about this traditional process. After salting and packing ume plums for their fermentation, a deliciously sour liquid is exuded from the fruit. This is ume "vinegar" that many of us know and love! Discover the joys of this Japanese delicacy and get ready to try your hand at a batch of salted plums or stone fruit at home!

Manzanita Room

Enter this cultured classroom down the hallway near the entrance of the event:

11:30 Nicole Easterday: "Small-Scale Lactofermentation"

FARMcurious.com is a favorite online outlet of ours for the urban farmer and home fermenter! Nicole reminds us that you don't have to have an expensive crock or an insatiable appetite for sauerkraut to explore lacto-fermentation at home. Sit in on Nicole's presentation to learn how to turn just about any produce into nutritious, tangy, fermented goodness! Stop by the FARMcurious booth to check out her fermenting kits for small scale production.

12:30 Paula Garay: "Basic Cheese Making"

Join Paula for this introduction to easy cheese making at home. She will offer a short demo on basic soft cheese making at home, and will discuss a few enzymes and different methods for making delicious home made cheese. Paula is a local farmer and will be ready to answer your questions about making soft cheeses, such as chèvre, with success!

2:30 Colette Hatch: "Madame de Fromage Cheese Pairing"

Limited Seating Only! We encourage you to purchase tickets to this event through our website, as it will sell out before the day of the event. Join internationally recognized cheese monger and connoisseur Colette to experience the tastes of Northern California through her pairing of cheeses with cider, wine and mead. Breads - including gluten free sourdoughs - will be available from traditional bakers in the area for sampling as well.

4:30 Aaron Gilliam: "Traditional Meat Curing: Salumi and more"

Fermentation doesn't stop with kimchi and kombucha. Aaron is the salumiere at Thistle Meats in Petaluma, a whole-animal butcher shop dedicated to ethically-raised and locally-sourced meats. Aaron has studied in Italy to learn traditional meat curing practices and now utilizes his old-world knowledge to create succulent and complex salumi and more. Join Aaron to sample and learn about his salumi making and be prepared to be inspired.

VIP Tasting Glass (for mobile) offers same VIP Experience as VIP Tasting Glass ($45.00 Minimum) This price has been added to accommodate users purchasing from a mobile device. BPT's Mobile Site does not list Variable Pricing.

Thursday, August 21, 2014

To watch the first LiveCast on Youtube (via Google hangout) please click on the below and submit questions on the right-hand side under 'chat'. I'd love to discuss burning poop, microbiota and gut questions for a brief but fecally-dense 20 minutes. lol

I love all the topics and questions posted already. Appreciate you taking the time to comment and thinking about the humble, forgotten organ. Continue submitting questions here which I will answer in upcoming newsletter, PDFs and LiveCasts. Thank you!

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Update: Videocast THE SCOOP ON YOUR POOP at 3pm PST Thursday. Please continue to submit questions and I'll answer live and 1-2 that are posted. Thank you!

What's In Your Gut Zoo? Missing Leanness and Longevity?

If you are plateauing on fat loss, consider the gut microbes that can hijack and hamper your health success. The 5 mass extinctions of the gut microbiota lead to the loss of 'the limbs of the microbiota' that are attributed to leanness and longevity.

Consider that we co-evolved with them for millions if not billions of years and it is a relationship that requires nurturing, replenishment, and proper attention. Consider that for optimal body fat recomposition, the bugs residing/missing in the gut may be more important than the fuel. You may be feeding empty zoo cages in the modern age or worse, caged vipers, rogues and renegades.

Resistant Starch is Highly Unlikely to Miraculously Lead to Fat Loss Recently Dr. Nett at Kresser's office did a post about how raw starch RS2 may improve weight loss. How resistant starch (RS) can help is very very very indirect. Let's talk about the entire community of the gut and c-o-n-t-e-x-t.

I have not seen raw starch RS2 miraculously induce fat loss in obese human animals. I can list the people who are still 'challenged' (like I was for a while!). Unfortunately there are few anecdotes, human RCTs, human cases or internet stories that back up instant weight loss with raw starch RS2 -- yes -- because I've looked. RS is just a fiber. Digestible complex carbs are fiber too -- 10% escape into the colon and feed the microbiota quite well. If the diet is 150-200 grams carbs, then 15 to 20 grams will be pure fuel for the colon flora. Nice, eh? That's half of our 'fiber quotient'.

These researchers Johnston et al found "Resistant starch consumption did not significantly affect body weight, fat storage in muscle, liver or visceral depots. There was also no change with resistant starch feeding on vascular function or markers of inflammation. However, in subjects randomized to consume the resistant starch, insulin sensitivity improved compared with the placebo group (P = 0.023)...Unlike in animal models, diabetes prevention does not appear to be directly related to changes in body adiposity, blood lipids or inflammatory markers. Further research to elucidate the mechanisms behind this change in insulin sensitivity in human subjects is required."

What does work is getting to the root causes of obesity, fat gain and dysregulated metabolism. Humans are complex. Obesity and evolution are intertwined. For all life on earth including plants and insects, we are superorganisms living in symbiosis with an entire community of microbes. The microbial community can actually hijack and hamper health when it is diseased. OTOH the microbial community can be epically collaborative in optimizing longevity and health in our co-evolved microbe-host interaction that has been ongoing for literally hundreds of millions of years, if not billions.

Many examples of a collaborative community exist where mutual support and mutual exchange of energy and spirit co-exist. Local, sustainable, organic farms that bring our livestock, eggs and produce are my favorite examples. The paleo/primal hood and the ancestral AHS14 are others.

I talked about the cohousing experiment by Ridaura et al at AHS. They took gut microbiota from human twins that were discordant for obesity (one twin lean, one twin obese) and put them into GF (germ free) rodents. Later they cohoused lean with obese mice and observed the changes after a fat inducing diet (high saturated fat) v. high fiber, low fat diet. The results were not surprising and showed the compelling power of poop. Why did cohousing work?

(Coprophagy = PROBIOTICS)

On the fat inducing diet, lean mice didn't get as obese and the obese mice become super obese.

See below. The cohoused animals had notable changes which make this study an epic study for the gut: the lean cohoused mice got jacked by eating the poop of the obese mice, eg they gained fat mass on the high fiber diet. The obese mice however upon cohousing, high plant fuel diet, and attaining the 'lean core microbiota' (mini fecal transplant) via coprophagy/cohousing GAINED LEAN MASS AND LOST SIGNIFICANT BODY FAT MASS.

I think the true beauty of the Ridaura study is that the shift in microbiota + diet reflected in metabolic changes, insulin sensitivity and body fat recompositioning. The gut shifts were tracked and the invasion of the ancestral core microbes from the lean mice into the obese mice was directly related to the body fat changes.

Fig 3A and 4C shows the shift in the gut that correspond to the lean phenotype. The roadmap to healthy body fat recomposition is shown here. An 'invasion' of the lean 'poop' (mini fecal transplant) into the obese mice are dissected into just a handful of species, of which two are part of the ancestral core that I talk about at AHS. All the species below are great when they are coming from a 'healthy community' eg happy, healthy, horny/hormonally-young mouse.

Enriched in mice colonized with or invaded by members of a Ln microbiota
Bacteroides uniformis*
Bacteroides vulgatus* -- one of the 7 ancestral core
Eubacterium desmolans* -- E. rectale is one of the 7 ancestral core

8. Plant polyphenols lower inflammation as well as tighten up gut epithelium and tight junctions (bilberry, citrus, pectin from legumes and apples, etc)

9. Lower non-ancestral stress

10. Weed your gut
--probiotics
--fiber, complex carbohydrates (low glycemic index), resistant starch
--in obesity, several overgrowths have been detected with consistency and reliability. Get ride of these. The species are listed in Ridaura's article and my AHS14 slides. The lean mice (from human discordant twins) do not have these strains and when they were invaded, they gained body fat even on the high fiber low fat diet. In human gut sequencing studies, overgrowths of yeasts, protozoa, parasites and pathogenic bacteria are found. Fix these by seeing an integrative and functional medicine practitioner for stool/urine testing and appropriate care

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Next week I will do a first (dry run) videocast chat for 20min. Date and time TBA but will let you know soon

Per a suggestion from Reader Chris, please list your top 3 poop questions and I'll try to answer some of them during these future routine sessions on Video Chat. Would you like to have them turned into podcasts to download later to listen during commuting or working out? Let me know...

Thanks in advance for submitting your burning poop and cr*p questions!! Appreciate you making this sexy and fun for me!

The gut microbiota has undergone radical changes. Human gut anatomy are unaltered but the microbial ecosystems have degraded. Health may mirror these changes and how we acquire our microbiota including the ways we procure our food -- shifting at the neolithic from tedious hand foraging to village crops to (now) massive, post-industrial farming operations and livestock production. Our distance from the dirt is immeasurable. New technology allows characterization of the ancestral gut. Comparatively, species in ancestral and non-industrialized guts are robust in diversity and less fragile in balance. Ways to resolve this 'gut identity' crisis involve re-wilding and revisiting the ancestral, soil-connected gut.

Germ-free rodents were inoculated then tracked as successions of microbial populations colonized the gut toward a final mutualistic community of primary plant polysaccharide degraders and their secondary degraders. I thought it was super neat to see the urinary metabolites, amino acids and fermentation products were all tracked real time. Butyrate notably increases as Clostridium clusters IV and XIVa take over. Bacteroidetes and Lactobacillus were the early settlers and gradually declined over the transition to stable components. These authors also included the integration of host saccharides that feed the microbiota: fucose and other glycan biosynthesis that is controlled by a genetic variant known as FUT2. This is the same SNP that directs how much glycosylated blood antigens are secreted on RBCs as well (blood types: ABO). Non-secretors release much less glycans to the flora on RBCs, intestinal epithelium, all mucous membranes and bodily fluids.

They've certainly invaded their dual nices as both primary and secondary degraders of all things plant fiber and starch (in fact, both cooked and resistant). 10% of our digestible food escapes small intestine digestion and enter the colon for microbial fermentation. For a 150-200 g carb diet, this means about 15-20 grams digestible and cooked starch makes it into the mega composter (colon) and fill the big bellies of the flora like cluster XIVa. That's a lot of starchy food considering tens of millions of microbes may live in one gram of poop or soil.

R. intestinalis works synergistically often with Bifidobacteria. Whatever starch fragments that Bifidobacteria throw away, R. intestinalis can munch over. If Bifido is not around (like after antibiotics), R. intestinalis might starve a little. On VLC diets, Roseburia drops along with starch intakes. What is most bothersome is that butyrate dips 4-fold as well.

These fibers raise cluster XIVa nicely, at the same time protecting rodents from increased obesity, high insulin, high BGs, high TGs, and metabolic syndrome with an inflammation-inducing HF diet. All disease protection appears to correlate directly with Roseburia caecal population increases.